Canton cop accused of murder waives rights to speedy trial

Cutts and a high school classmate accused of killing Jessie M. Davis and her unborn child.

Lori Monsewicz

Bobby L. Cutts Jr. won’t go on trial anytime soon.

Attorneys for the Canton police officer and his former high school classmate said more time is needed to prepare for their trials, which could have started in just weeks.

Cutts and Myisha L. Ferrell waived their rights to a speedy trial early Tuesday morning.

Both are charged in connection with the deaths of Jessie M. Davis and her unborn daughter, Chloe.

Cutts, 30, formerly of Ayrshire Avenue NE in Plain Township, could face the death penalty if a jury finds him guilty of three aggravated murder charges and additional counts of aggravated burglary, endangering children and two counts of gross abuse of a corpse.

Ferrell, 29, formerly of Oxford Avenue NW in Canton, is charged with obstructing justice and complicity to gross abuse of a corpse. She could get up to six years in prison if convicted.

Davis was reported missing from her Lake Township home in June. Hundreds of people searched for the pregnant mother of Cutts’ 2-year-old son. Her decomposing body was found about a week later.

The Summit County medical examiner ruled her death and that of her unborn, near-term baby as homicides.

Not-guilty pleas

Cutts and Ferrell entered not-guilty pleas in hearings on Friday.

Ferrell appeared before Judge Charles E. Brown Jr. in a makeshift courtroom at the Stark County Jail, where she is being held in lieu of $500,000 bond.

Her attorney, John Alexander, asked that her bond be reduced or that she be assigned to house arrest, citing her need to care for her 9-year-old daughter.

Brown denied the request.

Ferrell’s trial date was set for Nov. 5 to provide her attorney more time to prepare for her defense.

Alexander said the responses from questionnaires that will go out Oct. 7 to 300 potential jurors will enable him to determine whether media exposure would prompt him to seek to move the trial out of Stark County.

“It’s very difficult for her and her family, but we’re doing everything that we can,” he said. Alexander said Ferrell is in “constant contact” with her family and has had visits with her daughter.

No trial date

No trial date has been set for Cutts, said Dennis Barr, chief of the Stark County prosecutor’s criminal division.

Cutts took a seat between his Cleveland-based attorneys, Myron Watson and Fernando Mack, and hung his head as they leaned in to talk to him.

Brown told the attorneys he would meet with them again at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 7. Barr said he expects a trial date may be set at that time, but that he didn’t expect the trial to begin until after the beginning of next year.

Mack said he and Watson planned to request investigatory reports this week to find out what information the prosecutors have and decide whether the defense would want to file for a change of venue for the trial.